Sociology and Space, No. 67-68, 1980.
Original scientific paper
The CPY/LCY and the Peasantry
Ivan Cifrić
Abstract
The author treats the period after
the end of the armed socialist
revolution in Yugoslavia, during
which the CPY/LCY (Communist
Party of Yugoslavia/League of
Communists of Yugoslavia) was
the basic ideological and political
driving force of the working class
and of the building of socialism.
Thus the CPY/LCY also played
a dominant role in processes of
transformation of the peasantry.
The author indicates some
characteristic moments in the
relationship between the CPY/LCY
and the peasantry, crucial for
changes in the peasantry itself.
His basic approach in this short
retrospective was to point out the
characteristic attitudes of the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia
shown in its documents, and also
in documents of the state (the
Constitution), and to link them
to the social conditions of the time
in which they were brought.
In the first stages (»revolutionary
state socialism«) the peasantry was
approached as a class. In the name
of the revolution the Party
abolished it politically as a
separate force, but enabled its
continued existence as a small-scale
owner. It thus »protected« it from
the negative consequences of the
already started industrialization
and the ending of the process of
primary accumulation (begun
under capitalism). Later the
League of Communists of
Yugoslavia started the process
of integrating the peasantry into
socialism until the development
of today's forms of associating
work and the means of production.
The peasantry's positive
relationship towards the
achievements of the socialist
revolution enabled it to pass into other social strata. It thus became
the basic social stratum that
generates the working class. This
can be felt in the empirical
consciousness of the working
class itself, but not in its historical
consciousness too. Through its
role in society and the revolution
the CPY/LCY ensured for
the peasantry social and
economical perspective as an
agricultural producer, i.e. a
worker who uses socially owned
means of production.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
119401
URI
Publication date:
11.6.1980.
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